Digital ( or even analog radio) vs Internet radio.
The world of radio is changing quickly.
However I still have a romantic attach for the first option, vs the second.
( don’t know the sales numbers to back one over another , in terms of business returns/ profitability)
The last proposition made by naim was nat05xs, if my memory is correct. Nothing after that. And seems not likely to occur.
Ok: we have the streamers that allow Internet radio, or eventual optional radio module in some components. ( essentially in the Uniti range).
Question: Am I alone in the feeling of void here?
Doesn’t our fellow members ( the ones that adopt the separates route) want a change (chance) to choose some kind of sucessor of the nat05?
A year ago I would have said yes, and indeed I bought a s/h NAT05 and a half decent 4 element Yagi.
However over the last year I’ve been playing more and more with streaming iRadio though my Allo streamer & nDAC. So the NAT03, NAT05, CD3.5, CDX, even my '82 vintage Sondek, are kept largely for nostalgia.
Must admit I’m afraid to say I use my iPhone to Bluetooth the radio through the hifi it saves having yet another box
I did have a denon tuner until I discovered the project Bluetooth box years ago
Yes - yes but - if high quality terrestrial radio broadcasting had a real future, problem is I have my doubts. I’m not so sure the listening public has an appetite for quality broadcasting any more, times have moved to alternatives.
The FM switch off Sword of Damocles is back in its scabbard, but the end of FM is merely postponed I fear; it makes no sense in having a dual national broadcast service.
If DAB, in whatever of its various forms, did sound better, was more efficient & did not cost so much to provide area coverage over all terrains, then I have no doubt that a national FM service would have been switched off by now.
Internet web radio is another form of broadcast, arguably not as good as FM, but maybe high quality FLAC holds the key. Whatever web radio in its basic form can be made better than any of the DAB formats, problem is its not users selected music.
Streaming brings a personal choice of music & in high enough quality to satisfy most. These services can be used at home & on the move & I suspect this is where the future lies. Add some news & other interest types of services & it seems to me to be wanting for nothing.
I honestly thought radio lost its sound when it went digital so I sort off lost the love off it, mind you I’m sat listening to Paul ogrady at the moment on radio 2
Got to admit that I prefer the allure of the analog. Digital, specifically in Portugal where i live, never took off: the cost of implementation was never justified…
So, indirectly, I must stay attached to analog or jump to iradio.
[quote] Indeed. So much offer in terms of media…
The new generation waste so much time in phones and PCs that even television is relegated to second option. [/quote]
It seems that for the yoof of today everything revolves around the “smart phone”. PCs (unless they are for specialist use like gaming) and even tablets are “so yesterday”. Television is wot the old folks watch.
They really are not interested in separates, when an iPhone and Airpods can give great sound, or perhaps more accurately, a sound that is Good Enough, and you can walk around town with it (usual Covid lockdown rules apply, naturally).
Audio lovers are an elderly and dying breed, I’m afraid.
And by extension, so are specialist audio manufacturers…
True FM analog is sometime unbeatable.
Having owned 01, 02, 101, currently on a Nat 05 with poor antenna, enjoying internet radio more than I thought possible.
As with vinyl, I’d never leave analog FM, well until they turn it off.
As for new products, dream on…it won’t happen
As long as I can get my tuner serviced I’m happy.
My second hobby, with that same destiny:
I love mechanical watches. And the majority of my friends doesn’t even use them: they look as you said, to smartphones
